One Letter Movies

“A, B, C, D, E, F, G/ H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P/ Q, R, S/ T, U, V/ W, X/ Y and Z/ Now I know my ABCs/ Now what do you think of me?” – Traditional Children’s Song

Doing “V” movies last time got me thinking about all the movies whose titles are a single letter.  When I did a little research I found that pretty much every letter had been used for a title at least once, and some of them had been used several times.

I will be recommending five of these films. I’ve seen two others – 1982’s Q (aka The Winged Serpent) and 1998’s S. – but they were not good enough for me to recommend.  The first is an attempt to do a 1950s style monster movie in the 1980s and the second is sort of a cross between The Doom Generation and the Aileen Wuornos story that is just trying too obviously to be controversial.

As I post the reviews, I will come back and post the links to them here:

M (1931)
O (2001)
W. (2008)
X (2011)
Z (1969)

On to the reviews…

Book – Maine Mountain Guide, 10th Edition

Way back at the beginning of this site I did a post describing the best references for hiking in Maine, in Acadia National Park, and in the White Mountain National Forest.  (You can read that post here.)  The books for Acadia and the White Mountains are still the most current guides, but the AMC just published the Tenth Edition of their Maine Mountain Guide, so this post will update you on what has changed in it.

All of the changes in this latest edition make it much more consistent with the AMC’s White Mountain guide.  Most of these changes make it much better, while one makes for a minor inconvenience.

Movie – The Dark Knight Rises (2012)

I might as well address the elephant in the room right away.  There was no special security at the movie theater this afternoon when I went to see The Dark Knight Rises.  It was pouring outside, so I had to use an umbrella to get from my car to the building.  I was wondering if I would be asked to open it just to show nothing was concealed in it, but no one did.  I’m not proud of this, but I do admit that when a lone man walked into the theater about 10 minutes after the film started I watched him all the way to his seat before I turned my attention back to the movie.  I’m not sure if this says more about me or the times we live in.  I suspect it’s a bit of both.

Hike – Schoodic Peninsula Park Loop Road and All Trails on Schoodic Head (Anvil Trail, East Trail, Alder Trail, Schoodic Head Trail)

Plaque describing how Schoodic Peninsula became public

Many people who visit Acadia National Park in Maine never leave Mount Desert Island where the largest part of the park is located.  These people are missing out.  There are also sections of the park on Schoodic Peninsula and on Isle au Haut.  Schoodic Peninsula is the land you can see across Frenchman Bay from Bar Harbor.  It is easy to get to and I will be describing all four hiking trails located there, as well as the drive on the one-way park loop road that is located there.

Hike – Mount Battie, Megunticook Mountain, and Maiden Cliff

Cross overlooking Megunticook Lake at Maiden Cliff

Mount Battie and Megunticook Mountain are located in Camden Hills State Park in Camden, Maine.  They represent the finest coastal mountain hiking outside of Acadia National Park.  Maiden Cliff is just outside of the park and overlooks Megunticook Lake.  This post is a supplement to my original Mt. Battie and Megunticook Mountain post.  It covers the same start, but also includes a complete traverse of Megunticook Mountain all the way to Maiden Cliff.

I Received a Liebster Award…Again

(Hopefully you read that title in your mind with Bill Murray’s voice from Groundhog Day.)

Alex Jowski at Alex Jowski Movie Reviews gave me the Liebster Award.  I’d like to thank him for that.  Now here’s the most interesting part of it – I received the Liebster Blog Award in February of this year (you can read my post on it here), but that award appears to be different from this one.  Between February and today it got bitten by a radioactive spider, got a high dose of gamma radiation, or fell into a vat of chemicals and emerged wholly changed by the experience.

How is it different?  The original one was designed to recognize blogs with fewer than 200 Followers.  The recipient would go on to nominate five other blogs that he or she felt were deserving of more recognition.  The current one includes a set of 11 things you should tell about yourself, 11 questions from the awarder to answer, then it should be passed on to 11 other blogs with 11 new questions.  No restriction on the number of Followers is set.

My apologies to everyone, especially Alex, but I have chosen not to pass this on to others.  While some bloggers love to participate in these, others prefer not to receive them because they are the blogging equivalent of a chain letter.  I don’t have a problem participating in things of this nature (see below for my part of the requirements), but I don’t want to make other people think they have to participate when they don’t want to.

By the way, anyone know who this Liebster is?

11 Things About Chip Lary

1. I was born a poor black child.  No, wait.  That was Steve Martin.  I get us confused sometimes.  (He’s the one that’s funnier.)  I was born before Man set foot on the Moon and I wanted nothing more than to be an astronaut when I grew up.
2. The first movie I have a memory of seeing in a movie theater is Charlotte’s Web (1973).
3. I saw almost no movies, other than ones broadcast on the major channels, until I graduated from college.  I was living on the edge, paying off student loans, so about my only entertainment after graduating was watching movies on cable channels.  The vast majority of the movies I have seen have been since that time.
4. I have no idea how many movies I have now seen, but I know it’s somewhere north of 5,000 because I have rated almost that many movies on Netflix and I’ve seen a lot of other movies that they don’t even list.
5. If forced to choose one, single film as my favorite, I would not pick the usual greats like Citizen Kane or The Godfather.  I would pick The Princess Bride (1987).  I wrote about that here.
6. When I was 12 years old that answer would have been The Parent Trap (1961).  I saw this on the Disney Movie of the Week and literally thought about the film every day for the next month.  My parents were divorced, I was the only boy, and the idea of having a brother to play with and get my parents back together was very appealing.
7. The first actress I ever saw in a movie and felt the stirrings of “hey, she’s kind of interesting and not at all covered with cooties” was Diane Lane in A Little Romance.
8. The movie that men will tend to admit to crying at when they saw it is Field of Dreams.  I am no exception.  I lost my father a few years before this movie came out and he and I used to play catch when I was younger.  After this film ended I so badly wanted to play catch with my dad again and I couldn’t.
9. The first subtitled film I ever saw was Jean de Florette (1986) and its follow-up Manon of the Spring (1986).  They were fantastic and I never shied away from foreign films after that.
10. I saw them on Cinemax in the late 80s, which was often derided as “Skinemax” because Friday nights they would show some European soft core film like Emmanuelle.  They actually showed a ton of other movies, including new foreign, independent, and documentary films each month.  It’s because of Cinemax that I saw the first films from Kevin Smith (Clerks), Robert Rodriguez (El Mariachi), Spike Lee (She’s Gotta Have It), Robert Townsend (Hollywood Shuffle), Michael Moore (Roger and Me), and many others.
11. I researched, compiled, edited, and published a 900 page genealogy on one branch of my family (the Parkmans).  Hey, I had to have one non-movie related thing here.

11 Questions from Alex for Me to Answer

1. What do you enjoy most about blogging?

When someone lets me know they watched a movie because of my recommendation and that they really enjoyed it.

2. What movie do you end up recommending to people more than any other movie?

I often push Whale Rider (2002) because it’s not as well known as other movies that I also love.  You can read my recommendation for it here.

3. What celebrity or artist have you have met who has inspired you the most in your life?

I haven’t ever met anybody famous in the entertainment world.  I ran into former basketball pro Dave Cowens on a golf course once.  I’ve met Senators and Representatives, but I wouldn’t say any of them have inspired me.  I can’t really give an answer to this question.  Sorry.

4. What is your favorite "bad" movie?

This is probably harder than naming my favorite good movie.  If I like a movie I don’t consider it bad.  I’ll pick a somewhat recent film just because I liked it a lot more than most everyone else who saw it and that is Sucker Punch (2011).  I wrote about that here.

5. What is a movie that offends you - a movie you hate for moral reasons.

I don’t think an entire movie has ever offended me.  Scenes within them have (i.e. Salo).  The most prevalent trend across movies that bothers me is films that present men as nothing more than rapists who just haven’t had the right trigger yet that will cause them to mindlessly force themselves on a woman.

6. What are two of your favorite books that have NEVER been adapted into a movie?

Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein and Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card.  I hear the latter may finally show up as a film some time next year.

7. Whose opinion do you trust more in deciding if a movie is good or not? Critics in magazines/newspapers, fellow bloggers, or the general public (like imdb scores, etc.)?

Professional critics would definitely come last.  There was a time when I would literally use them as a negative guide to movies (if they hated it, I would watch it).  I suppose I treat recommendations from bloggers and people I know about the same.  You get a feeling for who has similar tastes to you and you pay more attention to them when they recommend something.

8. Which game from your childhood do you wish you could play again? (Could be a video game or a playground game like Tag).

Well, I could still play baseball today by joining a league somewhere, but what I miss about playing baseball as a kid is tossing the bat, choosing sides, sharing gloves and the single bat, the beat up baseball, the ratty field, the random objects for bases, etc.  In other words, I miss the things that made it something for kids, not something for adults.

9. Do you have a nickname?  How did you get that name?

Actually, Chip is my nickname.  I was named after my father and instead of calling me “Junior” or something similar, my family called me Chip.  No one remembers why, or who started it, but their best guess is it was short for “chip off the old block”.

10. What was the first thing you posted on your blog and why?  (Initial "Welcome to my Blog" posts don't count).

I did a set of related posts on the three films that won all five major Oscars, a book review, and a hike.  My original intent was to do a set like this each week and I would post them all at the same time once per week.  I also had a post where I asked people to pick the next movie category I should write about (among the three choices I offered), but despite several hundred views I got not one single reply.  Since then I’ve just picked the movie categories myself.  And after joining the LAMB I started concentrating more on movies, and I started spreading the posts out instead of doing them all at once. 

11. What is your favorite beverage?

About all I drink is milk with breakfast, water when I’m thirsty, Coke when I pick up a pizza, and Sprite as a general drink with other meals.  I’ve never been much of a coffee drinker, and with a history of alcoholism in my ancestry I’ve chosen not to be an alcohol drinker.

Movie – Rock of Ages (2012)

Rock of Ages is a musical comedy based on the original Broadway show.  It is directed by Adam Shankman, who knows a thing or two about musical comedy – he did the musical version of Hairspray.  While Rock of Ages is no Hairspray it still is entertaining for both the music and the humor.  I would say that Rock of Ages is more closely related to movies like Across the Universe or Moulin Rouge in that the plot is constructed to use existing popular songs at appropriate times.  Where Across the Universe used Beatles songs, Rock of Ages uses songs from the 1980s.

Whistling While I Work Part 2

I’ve spent the last couple of days adding a few features here. 

If you look over to the right in the “Pages” section you will now find some additional ones designed to help folks find specific movies, books, and TV shows that I have reviewed.  I did this because I’ve found that the Google search box in the upper right has gotten less reliable for the older posts.  When I can’t even find my own year old review without some searching, how can I expect someone else to find it at all?  Because of this I felt it would be best if I build and maintain these indexes going forward. 

In the Movies Index page I have also included the Movie Categories that I have used.  These link directly to the parent post for each Category, which then has links to the individual movies in those categories.  If you prefer, you can continue to use the Labels which appear a little lower on the right.  I will not be discontinuing those.

If you find a bad link, please let me know and I will correct it.  If you have suggestions on how to improve these index pages, please let me know.

In other news, I haven’t forgotten about reviewing the Big Summer movies.  I will have a review of Rock of Ages up soon.  I have already added some comments on The Amazing Spider-Man to the 2012 Big Summer Movies post.  You can read them here.  In short, the movie is poorly written and it is not good enough for me to recommend, despite Emma Stone’s presence.  I have not seen Brave yet, but hope to soon.  I will probably see The Dark Knight Rises after the crowds dissipate some – so this probably means some time next week.

Most of my highest viewed posts right now are my hiking ones.  This makes sense since there are a lot of tourists here in Maine for the summer and they are looking for information on some good hikes.  I plan to post some of the backlog I have here.  I’ll continue that at least through my review of The Dark Knight Rises.  I will start my next Movie Category after that.  I also have posts I want to do at some point on Game of Thrones Season 2, as well as updating my Castle TV show review to bring it up through the end of Season 4.

Finally, last Friday night this site passed 50,000 views.  I’d like to thank everyone who takes the time to visit, to comment, and maybe even pass a post on to someone they think will like it.  My apologies for not visiting your sites for the last week or so.  It’s been too damn hot where I am to be on the computer any longer than it takes to write and post a review, plus the time I spent on building the new Pages.  I’ll try to catch up when the weather breaks in a couple of days.

Movie – Victory (1981)

The college I went to was a small, Division III school in sports.  At that level there are no sports scholarships allowed and most of the athletic teams were hardly more than clubs.  The one sport where the college was very talented and competitive, however, was soccer.  (We went to the 12-team national tournament two of the four years I was there, representing the New England region, but never advanced out of the round robin opening section.)  Even though I was not on the team, I got caught up in all things soccer, and that included joining the college’s showing of the occasional soccer movie.  I remember we started watching one named Victory and all of a sudden the crowd is reacting – “Wait a minute.  That’s Sylvester Stallone!  He made a soccer movie?”  The answer is “sort of”.  A more accurate description is that he is in a WWII escape film that revolves around a soccer match.

Movie – The Visitor (2007)

The Visitor is the movie that Richard Jenkins had been waiting 25 years for.  After having been a supporting actor in any number of well-respected films (starting with 1985’s Silverado and 1986’s Hannah and Her Sisters, through stints with both the Coen Brothers and the Farrelly Brothers, right up to 2005’s North Country), he finally got the chance to carry his own film.  Instead of being “that guy” that you recognize, but maybe can’t remember his name, he finally became “the guy” and boy did he deliver.  He received a well-deserved Best Actor Oscar nomination for his work in this film.  He is the biggest reason to see it.

Movie – V for Vendetta (2005)

The movie V for Vendetta is based on the 1980s graphic novel of the same name.  It was written by Alan Moore (Watchmen), but he refused to allow his name to be used in connection with the film because, well, he’s kind of a grump.  In this case he didn’t like the fact that the movie character of V was a rebel instead of an anarchist like in the graphic novel – a distinction that few movie viewers would have been able to make anyway.  The movie had far larger challenges than the lack of approval by the original author: it had to convince people to like, or at least understand the viewpoint of, a character that was essentially a terrorist.  This was especially challenging with 9/11 having just happened four years earlier.

Movie – Valkyrie (2008)

Valkyrie details the actual events surrounding a plot by some officers in the German military to assassinate Hitler.  Unless you slept through every single history class, or believe Tarantino’s version of what happened to Hitler, you know that this plot did not succeed.  You may be wondering why you should watch a movie when you already know how it’s going to turn out.  If you are like me, you know the basics of what happened, but as the saying goes, the devil is in the details.  There is far more going on than just trying to bump off Hitler.  There has to be an entire plan in place to stage a coup afterwards to ensure that Himmler or Goebbels doesn’t just take power.  Where do you get the manpower to do that?  How do you control them?  Why did the plot fail?  What happens to the participants of the failed coup?  More important, what happens to their loved ones?

Movie – The Verdict (1982)

The Verdict is a courtroom drama starring Paul Newman.  It received an Oscar nomination for Best Picture, but lost to Gandhi (1982).  AFI named it the fourth best American courtroom drama of all time in 2008.  This genre of movies is a lot like the romantic comedy genre – you don’t watch them to find out what’s going to happen at the end; you watch them to see what happens on the way.  This movie provides a good journey by making it all about the damaged man who’s desperately trying to win a case for his client.  Newman does an excellent job in this role.

Movie – Vanishing Point (1971)

Vanishing Point is pretty much the definition of a 1970s cult movie.  It features counter-culture and racial subplots in dealing with the people in power (i.e. the cops and the media).  It also features a white 1970 Dodge Challenger R/T with a 440 cubic inch V-8 engine that becomes the true star of the film as the driver of it evades the police across multiple states.  (For those folks who don’t speak “car” that’s a really fast and powerful machine.)  The result is an interesting movie that is as much about the times as it is the car.

Movie – A Very Long Engagement (2004)

A Very Long Engagement re-teams director Jean-Pierre Jeunet with his Amelie leading lady Audrey Tautou.  While there are a few similar touches in both films, Amelie is more on the happy-fantasy side while A Very Long Engagement deals more with the realities of war and its aftermath.  That’s not to say that it is a dreary drama.  There are some touches of humor, such as the repeated arrival of a bike messenger.  If you don’t watch the film expecting “Amelie 2” then you should find it to be a very good movie.

Movie – Volver (2006)

Anyone who has seen one of writer/director Pedro Almodovar’s films (i.e. The Skin I Live In, All About My Mother) knows that pretty much anything can happen in them…except a completely “normal” story.  Of all of his movies that I have seen Volver may be the most mainstream.  It still has the Almodovar touch, though.  It’s a heartwarming tale of the bonds among mothers, daughters, and sisters…and how easy it is to kill someone and get away with it.

Attack of the “V” Movies

“Voilà!  In view, a humble vaudevillian veteran, cast vicariously as both victim and villain by the vicissitudes of Fate. This visage, no mere veneer of vanity, is a vestige of the vox populi, now vacant, vanished.  However, this valorous visitation of a by-gone vexation, stands vivified and has vowed to vanquish these venal and virulent vermin van-guarding vice and vouchsafing the violently vicious and voracious violation of volition.  The only verdict is vengeance; a vendetta, held as a votive, not in vain, for the value and veracity of such shall one day vindicate the vigilant and the virtuous. [laughs] Verily, this vichyssoise of verbiage veers most verbose, so let me simply add that it's my very good honor to meet you and you may call me V.” – V, V for Vendetta

(And if you are thinking that I am doing this category just so I can use this quote….then you’d be right.)

As usual I am going to pick a variety of movies, some very well known and some veering outside the usual.  The only thing they will always have in common is that their titles start with the letter “V” (not counting the articles "a" and "the").

As I post the reviews, I will come back and post the links to them here:

Volver
A Very Long Engagement
Vanishing Point (1971)
The Verdict (1982)
Valkyrie
V for Vendetta
The Visitor (2007)
Victory (1981)
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea  (previously posted)

On to the reviews…

Book – Joss Whedon: The Complete Companion – The TV Series, The Movies, The Comic Books and More

About a month ago I was browsing through a bookstore when I came across a new book on Joss Whedon’s works.  For those people who do not recognize his name, he is the creator behind many influential works, most recently the very popular Avengers movie.  This book is not a biography, but instead is a series of essays and articles on his works across all the various kinds of media.  This is probably not a book for people who have seen nothing else he has done.  It is more for people who are at least familiar with one of his works, and especially for those that are fans of his.

Movie – Bill Cunningham New York (2011)

Note: When I put together my Top 10 Movies of 2011 list, I included the film Bill Cunningham New York.  I did not have a review of it posted, though, so I only wrote a few comments in that post and said I would get a full review up someday.  At the time I had planned to include it in a movie category in the next couple months, but that didn’t happen.  I’ve decided to put the review up now.  If/when I do a category that this belongs in I will come back and add that label to this post.  If you are interested, you can see my Top 10 Movies of 2011 list by clicking here.

Unless you read the New York Times and/or are in the fashion world, you’ve probably never heard of Bill Cunningham.  I never had.  Who he is is possibly the most influential person in the world in regards to documenting trends in fashion as they are just starting.  For decades he has had a weekly page in the New York Times where he publishes photos he has taken on the streets of New York – not of famous people, but of anybody who catches his eye.  You may now have a picture in your head of some snobby guy who is way too full of himself.  Nothing could be further from the truth, and therein lies the delight in this movie.  We get to see the real Bill Cunningham and he may be one of the most interesting people you will ever meet.

Movie – Another Earth (2011)

Note: When I put together my Top 10 Movies of 2011 list, I included the film Another Earth.  I did not have a review of it posted, though, so I only wrote a few comments in that post and said I would get a full review up someday.  At the time I had planned to include it in a movie category in the next couple months, but that didn’t happen.  I’ve decided to put the review up now.  If/when I do a category that this belongs in I will come back and add that label to this post.  If you are interested, you can see my Top 10 Movies of 2011 list by clicking here.

First things first – the most important thing you should know about the film Another Earth is that even though its premise involves a mirror Earth appearing in the sky, it is not primarily a science fiction movie.  It is really a character study of two people brought together by a single, tragic event.  The mirror Earth functions as the biggest metaphor for second chances ever put on the silver screen.  The reason it is important to know this is that those people who went into the film expecting to see sci-fi were hugely disappointed.  I had no expectations and I ended up liking this movie more and more as it went along.  I loved the final scene in the film.

June and Half Year Movie Status

Several of the blogs I read do monthly statuses on what movies they have seen.  I haven’t done any posts like this so far, but I figured I’d give it a try.  Prior to this year I never even tracked what movies I watched, so I wouldn’t have been able to do a post like this prior to February 2012 anyway.  The halfway point of the year seemed like a good time to start these posts, since I could also give a half year status.  I will probably do monthly posts going forward.

The two main lists that I am taking movie suggestions from right now are the 1,001 Movies You Must See Before You Die list and a list I put together of every Oscar Best Picture nominee.  You can see those lists by clicking on these links:  1,001 Movies; Oscar Nominees.  I started actively pursuing the movies on them in February 2012.  I had seen roughly half of the movies on each list prior to starting.

So far in 2012 I have seen 197 movies that were new to me, 16 movies that I re-watched, 5 TV series I watched on DVD, and Game of Thrones Season 2 on HBO.  Among those 197 films, 68 were from the 1,001 Movies list and 31 were Best Picture nominees.  (Some movies were in both lists.)

The best movie I saw in January was The Artist.  The worst was It’s a Boy Girl Thing.  In February the best was Hugo and the worst was Amor Delor Y Viceversa.  In March the best was Up in the Air and the worst was Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part I.  In April the best was The Wedding Banquet and the worst was a three way tie among the experimental films Flaming Creatures, Blond Cobra, and Wavelength.  In May the best was The Avengers (2012) and the worst was Four Lions.

Discussion Starter – Shakycam: The Most Exciting Thing to Happen to Film Since the Addition of Sound; or The Worst Thing to Happen to Film Since, Well, Ever – Part 2 (Cons)

I’ve seen more and more comments in recent years about the proliferation in movies of hand-held camera cinematography, or “shakycam” for short.  Some people despise it; many people dislike it, but tolerate it; some people like it; a few people love it; and some people, believe it or not, don’t even notice it.

I figured I would gather together the various pro and con arguments I have seen, and then go into a little detail on them.  In Part 1 of this discussion I talked about the various ways people are for it.  You can read that post here.  Now for the Con arguments.

Discussion Starter – Shakycam: The Most Exciting Thing to Happen to Film Since the Addition of Sound; or The Worst Thing to Happen to Film Since, Well, Ever – Part 1 (Pros)

I’ve seen more and more comments in recent years about the proliferation in movies of hand-held camera cinematography, or “shakycam” for short.  Some people despise it; many people dislike it, but tolerate it; some people like it; a few people love it; and some people, believe it or not, don’t even notice it.

I figured I would gather together the various pro and con arguments I have seen, and then go into a little detail on them.

YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUUK!

Those people who saw the 2011 film Moneyball might remember a conversation Pitt’s and Hill’s characters had about a then minor league baseball player named Kevin Youkilis, or as Hill’s character referred to him: “the Greek god of walks.”  This is taken from the non-fiction book the movie is based on.  In that book the author referred to him as “Euclis: the Greek god of walks”.  (Euclis; Euclid: get it?)  He called him this because Youkilis walked more than any player at any level of professional baseball, other than Barry Bonds, and because the author assumed his surname made him Greek.  It makes for a fun reference, but there were two things wrong with that title being bestowed on him.  The first is that Kevin Youkilis does not have any Greek ancestry.  The second is best illustrated by a joke his then-Manager Terry Francona made when asked for the umpteenth time about Youkilis being the Greek god of walks – “I’ve seen him in the showers and he’s not the Greek god of anything.”

Movie – Assassination of a High School President (2008)

I had heard good things about Assassination of a High School President, so I checked it out.  While it was different from what I had expected, I liked what it did.  How is it different?  It has a sense of humor.  I would go as far as calling this a comedy/drama, while at the same time still being a noir film set in high school.  It’s not a spoof of noir movies, though.  The humor comes from the situations in the film.

Movie – Cherry Crush (2007)

I had never heard of the film Cherry Crush when I found it in a bargain bin.  While this isn't usually a good sign, I've seen enough decent films in these bins to not immediately ignore a DVD I find there.  Sometimes these are films that didn't sell because they didn't fit into any standard genre like romantic comedy or action.  Like I mentioned with Brick, this is an R rated movie with teens as the leads, two things that would have limited its audience.  I saw this movie had Nikki Reed in it and from the description I could tell that it was a noir-like film.  Looking for another movie like Brick (2005) I did a blind buy on it.  While it’s not all that I hoped it would be, I still liked it well enough to include it in this category.

Movie – Brick (2005)

The movie Brick was quite a revelation for me.  If you had told me before I saw it that a Maltese Falcon type of film could be translated to a high school setting I would probably not have taken it seriously.  Luckily I knew nothing about the film when I rented it, other than it was a whodunit.  I immediately recognized the speech patterns of the characters as being right out of film noir.  At first it was a little strange to be seeing teenagers talk this way, but after a few minutes I got into it.  As the film went along and more and more noir conventions appeared, translated to being relevant to the setting, I enjoyed myself more and more.  This is definitely a movie that anyone who likes film noir should see.

Teen Noir Movies

“Mathematically, it’s a percentage of your life.  Four years, 48 months, 1,461 days.  High school is prom, football games, boyfriends, girlfriends, party at the rich kid’s house.  Fun, simple, wholesome.  But it’s really anything but.  High school might be the least wholesome four years of your life.  And there’s nothing simple about it.  High school is ugly, hard, and complicated.  As complicated as a conspiracy to assassinate the president.” – Bobby Funke (voice over), Assassination of a High School President

I almost went with the last line from this same film – “Forget it, Funke.  It’s high school.” because of the funny nod to Chinatown, but I decided I needed something a little more serious for my beginning quote.

Back in 2005 the movie Brick came out.  It starred Joseph Gordon-Levitt as a high schooler trying to solve the murder of a former girlfriend.  People hadn’t really seen anything quite like it before.  Much like films had been translating classic literature to a high school setting (i.e. Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew became 10 Things I Hate About You), someone finally translated the conventions of film noir’s hard-boiled detective stories to a high school setting.

There is a large segment of the adult population that will not watch an animated movie because they think they are “just for kids”.  Many adults will not watch anything with a teen protagonist for the same reason.  Combine that with an R rating, which movie theaters have been strongly enforcing in the last decade or so, and this limited the audience for this film, despite the fact that it won the Special Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival.

Because of this I thought this kind of movie might be a one-off, but it was followed in 2007 by Cherry Crush and in 2008 by Assassination of a High School President.  While neither of these were as deep into the noir conventions as Brick, it seems likely that they were inspired by it.

I will be reviewing all three of these films.  Off the top of my head, I can’t think of any other movies that I would classify as “teen noir”.  River’s Edge and Mean Creek involve teens and a dead body, but do not have the noir conventions.  If you can think of any other films, please let me know.

As I post the reviews, I will come back and post the links to them here:

Brick
Cherry Crush
Assassination of a High School President

On to the reviews…

Hike – Cadillac Mountain Gorge Path (east approach), Dorr Mountain West Trail, North Ridge Trail, Hemlock Trail

East side of Cadillac as seen from the west side of Dorr

Cadillac Mountain is the highest point in Acadia National Park in Maine.  It is also the highest mountain on the Atlantic Ocean anywhere north of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.  In the Fall and Winter it is the first place in the U.S. that sees the sunrise.  It has a free auto road that allows people to drive right to the top.  It also has multiple hiking trails to the summit.  Some are more challenging than others.  This post describes a hike up the Gorge Path on the east side of the mountain, the second most difficult way to ascend.  It then includes a west to north traverse of Dorr Mountain just to the west, then a loop back to the starting point via the Hemlock Trail. 

Movie – Men of Honor (2000)

Men of Honor is based on the true story of Carl Brashear, who was the first black man to achieve the highest U.S. Navy enlisted rank of Master Diver (E-9).  Cuba Gooding, Jr. plays the main character from the late 1940s to the late 1960s.  It’s the last really good performance I’ve seen from him, although I’ve admittedly been skipping most of his more recent movies.  The film co-stars Robert Deniro and Charlize Theron.

Movie – The Legend of Bagger Vance (2000)

On its surface, The Legend of Bagger Vance is just a movie about golf.  If you look a little deeper, though, you will find a film based on a Hindu tale about a man rediscovering his true path in life.  Because of this, and because the plot involves a white man and a black man interacting in 1930, the movie also stirred up some controversy.  I will discuss this below.

The film stars Will Smith as the title character of Bagger Vance.  His co-lead in the movie is Matt Damon as Rannulph Junah.  Charlize Theron is the female lead as Adele Invergordon.  It is her actions that drive the events of the movie.

Movie – The Italian Job (2003)

This film is a remake of the 1969 British movie of the same name.  While there are some nods to the original (most obviously the mini Coopers used for the getaway, as well as the traffic jam) much of the plot of the remake is new.  I have seen both films, and while I’m sure this is heresy for fans of the original, I like the remake a little better.  This is because I like heist films that have brilliant characters in them.  The original featured a group of lovable losers following someone else’s plan, while the remake features smart people who come up with their own plans and can think on their feet.

Movie – Aeon Flux (2005)

Aeon Flux is a movie that critics hated.  Luckily, I rarely listen to professional critics.  They also hated John Carter.  I just watched it last night and found out it was actually a decent movie.  Anyway, Aeon Flux stars Charlize Theron as the title character.  With her coming off her Oscar win for Monster (2003), comparisons to prior Oscar winner Halle Berry’s film Catwoman were numerous (and unfair, in my opinion).  Added to this, the creator of the original animated Aeon Flux Mtv series also disowned the movie.  His series didn’t have any narrative structure or continuity, or even any spoken dialogue, and he was proud of that.  When he found out that this film was going to have plot, continuity, and yes, dialogue, he protested by telling fans of his show to not watch this movie.  Finally, this film opened against the fourth Harry Potter movie.  As a result of all of these things, the film did not get seen by too many people.  I did see it, and while there are certainly better movies, I liked this one enough to recommend it.

Movie – Young Adult (2011)

Young Adult is the second film that Director Jason Reitman and writer Diablo Cody teamed up for.  Since the first was the Best Picture nominee Juno (2007), expectations were quite high for this one.  Because of that this film ended up with mixed reactions from people.  Some loved it, some hated it, and some felt it was a good movie, but not as good as their other work.  I fall into the last group. 

Movie – Prometheus (2012)

Ridley Scott set out to make a prequel to Alien, but then changed his mind.  He instead decided to make an “original” movie.  He then sort of changed his mind back and decided (most likely for marketing and box office purposes) to say that this film is set in the same universe as the Alien films.  Anyone expecting to see the aliens from the earlier films will be severely disappointed, though.  Scott decided people had grown tired of them, so he had new creatures designed.  They essentially do the same things, just not in the same ways.  I avoided all of the viral marketing campaigns beforehand.  I knew that if I went into the film with too many expectations it would ruin it for me.  As a result, I was not bothered by the fact that there are no traditional aliens in this movie.

Movies Where Charlize Theron Does Not Get Naked

“You better not be thinking what I think you’re thinking ‘cause my answer is the same as always.  No threesomes unless they’re boy-boy-girl…or Charlize Theron.” – Harmony Kendall to Spike, Buffy the Vampire Slayer TV show

The title of this category probably brings one of two questions to your mind:

1.  Why watch one of her movies if she doesn’t get naked?

2.  There have actually been Charlize Theron movies where she doesn’t get naked?

I just watched both Prometheus and Snow White and the Huntsman.  Prometheus makes the cut as a movie I would recommend, but not Snow White.  If you would like to see my thoughts on the latter, you can read them here.

This category does mean that I will have to exclude what is definitely her best performance in 2003’s Monster, for which she took home the Oscar.  By the way, if you want to win an easy bet then challenge a “movie person” to name the only African actress to win an Oscar.  Theron, not being black, is overlooked by most people.

This category also means some decent movies like 2 Days in the Valley, The Cider House Rules, and The Burning Plain will also need to be skipped.  I’m still left with enough movies I can recommend.  Even for most of these her character is naked at some point, but the movie watcher doesn’t actually see anything, so they don’t count as being nude scenes.  The first movie up will be Prometheus.

As I post the reviews, I will come back and post the links to them here:

Prometheus
Young Adult
Aeon Flux
The Italian Job (2003)
The Legend of Bagger Vance
Men of Honor

On to the reviews…

New Wiki – 1,001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

I wanted to let you know that if you are interested at all in the 1,001 Movies You Must See Before You Die films then there is a great new resource to help people who are having trouble tracking down some of the harder to find movies.  There is now a 1,001 Movies Wiki to bring together all the information regarding them that movie lovers have. 

Adolytsi from Adol’s CinematoBlogoWebboScreed (you can see his blog here) and I have put this together for everyone to use and to keep current.  There are resources here that give you the entire list, those films that are available and unavailable from Netflix, and alternate sources you may be able to use to see those films.

To support this effort I updated the 1,001 Movies tracking sheet that I have at Lists from Chip.  It now has a comprehensive view of all 1,089 movies’ availability via Netflix.  You can see that list here.

Even if you only have an idle curiosity, why not check it out?  You may find something there to interest you.  Maybe one of the hard to find movies on this list just happens to be one you have been searching for yourself.

Here is a link to take you right to the main page: 

http://1001films.wikia.com/wiki/1001_Movies_You_Must_See_Before_You_Die_Wiki

You can also read more about the book that all of this is based on in my post here.

Finally, if you want to see my reviews of the films from this book, click on the “Movies – 1001 Movies” Label at the bottom of this post.

Humor – June Weddings

June is the month that is traditional for weddings.  I decided it was the right time to share various pictures I’ve run across.

First, there has to be the proposal.

Discussion Starter - Two Great Movies That I Secretly Hate (Part 2)

In my Part 1 post I wrote about hiding the fact that I sometimes have great movies that for whatever reason I simply didn’t like.  You should read it before continuing with this post.  You can find it here.  Two of these films are The Shining and Annie Hall.  In this post I will go into a little more detail on what it was about them that pushed the wrong buttons for me.

First, why are these “great” movies?  Here are my guidelines: 

1. It should be a film at least 25 years old so that a generation has gone by where it has been hailed as great. 
2. If possible, it should be both critically acclaimed AND liked by general movie goers. 
3. And it won’t be one of the trendy, easy targets like Ordinary People beating Raging Bull or other Oscar controversies.  Hating Raging Bull?  Now that would definitely qualify.

The great movies that I secretly hate are The Shining and Annie Hall.  “Hate” is a strong word for me, and I don’t use it lightly.  I can find something likable in almost every movie.  There have been only a handful of movies I would say I truly hated, but among them are these two classics.  There are several others that fall into the “dislike” category, but for now I will concentrate on the two that generated the strongest negative reaction in me.  Please be aware that there will be spoilers below for both of these films.

Discussion Starter - Do You Have Great Movies That You Secretly Dislike? (Part 1)

This is my 400^th post.  I’ve been kicking around some thoughts for several months now and I’ve decided to do something a little different.  Instead of a movie review/recommendation, I’m going to write something that I will simply term a “discussion starter”.

Many people have films that they consider guilty pleasures.  They write about them from time to time, almost as a confessional.  The thing is, these movies usually are ones that a large number of other people like, too.  They are often movies that are fun to watch, but don’t have much depth to them.  Just like most everyone else, it’s easy for me to write a recommendation for one of these films simply because I liked it.  I also have no problem sharing my liking for these films in comments on your sites.

Over the last several months, though, I’ve noticed a trend in myself.  I am far more reluctant to leave a comment that is critical of an all-time classic movie.  Sure, I will tiptoe around it some by writing things like “I felt it didn’t live up to the hype”, “for whatever reason it just wasn’t for me”, or even “I realize I am in the small minority here, but I didn’t like it.”

All of those are qualified statements weakening the message, which is this – I didn’t like, and maybe even hated, this critically acclaimed, very popular movie.  I’ve thought about why a guy confident enough to stand by all of his likes (me) is reluctant to stand behind his dislikes.  I’ve come to the conclusion that it comes down to “being taken seriously” as a “movie person”.